1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to systems, methods and computer program products for enrolling customers into service programs by third party providers, and more particularly systems, methods and computer program products for the enrollment of customers in bill pay service programs.
2. Description of Related Art
Bill payment services, especially bill pay services associated with online banking, have been experiencing increasing popularity in recent years. Banking and other financial institutions are therefore under pressure to provide bill pay services to remain competitive.
An example of a bill pay system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,789 to Shutzer (“Schutzer”). Schutzer describes an electronic bill presentment system that permits billers to send bills to the consumers using the system and permits consumers to receive bills from all of the billers using the system. However, providing such services requires costly investment in the hardware, software, personnel and other capital facilities necessary to implement bill pay services.
As an alternative to purchasing, or otherwise directly implementing a bill pay system, financial institutions often seek the assistance of a third-party bill pay service provider having its own bill pay system. Customers who log onto the financial institution's online bill pay site interact with the financial institution as if it were the bill pay provider. However, the financial institution has actually enrolled the customers into a bill pay program implemented by the third-party bill pay service provider. Therefore, the financial institution's use of a third-party bill pay service provider is transparent to the customer.
Subsequent to enrollment, bill payment requests by the customers are compiled periodically and forwarded electronically, along with the funds necessary for payment, to the bill pay provider. The bill pay provider then pays each of the bills as instructed, forwarding bill payment information and the funds to the billing organization either electronically or through conventional mail. The bill pay provider is typically compensated for its services based on the number of customers currently enrolled in its program.
Despite the cost-savings realized from using third-party bill pay service providers, the ongoing costs of enrolling a large amount of customers can still be relatively high. Therefore, financial institutions having their own bill pay service have somewhat of a competitive cost advantage over the long term. As a result, further cost reductions in the cost of providing bill pay services and, in particular, third-party bill pay service are desired by financial institutions.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a system for providing bill pay services to a banking institution without the banking institution having to make significant upfront investments in bill pay service facilities. In addition, it would be advantageous if the system were more cost-efficient than current systems using third-party bill pay service providers.